This activity engages students in the analysis of climate data to first …
This activity engages students in the analysis of climate data to first find areas in the southern United States that are now close to having conditions in which the malaria parasite and its mosquito hosts thrive and then attempt to forecast when areas might become climatically suitable.
This interdisciplinary course is a real-world collaborative multi-year project that connects various …
This interdisciplinary course is a real-world collaborative multi-year project that connects various departments, courses, and independent study projects on a college campus. Using the client/consultant model, students from several departments and a wide range of environmental backgrounds come together to explore the design of an efficient future student house on campus. Over a couple of years, students research and test building designs, energy for heating and power, natural flows of available energy, natural ecosystem processes including living machines, and possible materials to use in the eventual construction of the eco-house. This SERC Starting Point site includes learning goals, context for use, teaching tips and materials, assessment, and references.
Environmental Studies Course, Carleton College Professor Gary Wagenbach gwagenba@carleton.edu and Lecturer Richard Strong rstrong@acws.carleton.edu, Compiled by Suzanne Savanick, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, ssavanic@carleton.edu
This semester-long project on conducting an environmental audit of a college campus …
This semester-long project on conducting an environmental audit of a college campus can be done by an individual or by groups of students working in teams. Each group will research a different aspect of campus operations; they will collect data, analyze their findings, and make recommendations for improvements. This SERC Starting Point site includes learning goals, context for use, teaching tips and materials, assessment, and references.
Suzanne Savanick, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College. Based on a Greening the Campus environmental studies colloquium course taught at Carleton College in 1991.
The Protistan Tales of Atlantic White Cedar Swamps WebQuest features a guided …
The Protistan Tales of Atlantic White Cedar Swamps WebQuest features a guided exploration of microbial diversity. It introduces students to the extreme habitat of the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and encourages them to explore characteristics of the microorganisms that live there. The WebQuest applies the personification theme of Aesop's Fables as a means to acquaint students with protists. It challenges them to search for microbial "personality traits" and to implement these traits into a creative storyline. Through the use of on-line images, descriptions, videos, and reference sites, students will carefully research specific protists while independently developing observational skills essential to microbiology. Upon completion of this WebQuest, students should be able to differentiate protists based on physical characteristics and specialized forms of locomotion, describe the microbial diversity of Atlantic White Cedar Swamps, and apply learned observational skills to hands-on laboratory activities.
Students gain experience using a spreadsheet and working with others to decide …
Students gain experience using a spreadsheet and working with others to decide how to conduct their model 'experiments' with the NASA GEEBITT (Global Equilibrium Energy Balance Interactive Tinker Toy). This activity helps students become more familiar with the physical processes that made Earth's early climate so different from that of today. Students also acquire first-hand experience with a limitation in modeling, specifically, parameterization of critical processes.
In this activity for undergraduate students, learners build a highly simplified computer …
In this activity for undergraduate students, learners build a highly simplified computer model of thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean and conduct a set of simulation experiments to understand the complex dynamics inherent in this simple model.
In this activity, students investigate soil erosion and how a changing climate …
In this activity, students investigate soil erosion and how a changing climate could influence erosion rates in agricultural areas. This activity is part of a larger InTeGrate module called Growing Concern.
The Sarita Wetland restoration on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus …
The Sarita Wetland restoration on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus is used as teaching tools by numerous classes. Students, staff and faculty have collaborated on the planning and implementation of the project. This example highlights the restoration process, and specifically references one of the classes, the Water Quality class.
Suzanne Savanick, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, ssavanic@carleton.edu. Based on a Water Quality class taught by Jim Perry, University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Sustainable Campus Initiative, coordinated by Suzanne Savanick.
This series of activities is designed to introduce students to the role …
This series of activities is designed to introduce students to the role of sediments and sedimentary rocks in the global carbon cycle. Students learn how stable carbon isotopes can be used to reconstruct ancient sedimentary environments. Students will make some simple calculations, formulate hypotheses, and think about the implications of their results. The activity includes an optional demonstration of the density separation of a sediment sample into a light, organic fraction and a heavier, mineral fraction.
This activity with a lab report instructs students to solve and plot …
This activity with a lab report instructs students to solve and plot 160,000 years' worth of ice core data from the Vostok ice core using Excel or similar spreadsheets to analyze data. Students learn about ice cores and what they can tell us about past atmospheric conditions and the past atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4.
Students consider why the observed atmospheric CO2 increase rate is only ~60% …
Students consider why the observed atmospheric CO2 increase rate is only ~60% of the CO2 loading rate due to fossil fuel combustion. They develop a box-model to simulate the atmospheric CO2 increase during the industrial era and compare it to the historic observations of atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The model is then used to forecast future concentrations of atmospheric CO2 during the next century.
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